WASHINGTON - Deandre Robinson, 20, of Landover, Md., pled guilty today to a carjacking committed earlier this year in the parking garage of the Children’s National Medical Center, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.

Robinson pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to a charge of carjacking. The Honorable Robert E. Morin scheduled sentencing for January 27, 2012. Robinson faces a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison and up to 21 years.

At today’s plea hearing, the defendant admitted to a chain of events on February 9, 2011, starting at approximately 7:10 p.m., when the victim drove her minivan into the parking garage at the Children’s National Medical Center, in the 100 block of Michigan Avenue NW. In addition to the victim, the victim’s four-year-old daughter was inside the minivan at the time. After the victim parked her minivan, she started to walk toward the trunk to remove a stroller. While she was doing this, her daughter remained inside the minivan, buckled into her car seat.

As the victim was standing at the back of her minivan, Robinson approached her and demanded her keys, lunging at her. The victim resisted, and tried to keep her car keys away from him. Ultimately, after a brief struggle, Robinson was able to grab the car keys.

The victim yelled that her child was still in the car. Nonetheless, Robinson proceeded to unlock the front driver’s side door, get into the driver’s seat, start the minivan, and drive off, nearly hitting the victim in the process. Robinson drove through the garage, speeding past a kiosk to exit, while the victim ran after her minivan, yelling that her child was in the car.

Robinson drove to a nearby apartment complex, in the 100 block of Franklin Street NW, and parked the victim’s minivan in a space in an outdoor parking lot. Subsequently, he took the victim’s four-year-old daughter out of the minivan and left her by another parked car. He then got back into the minivan and drove off, toward Maryland.

A short while later, police officers in Prince George’s County, Maryland, saw Robinson driving the minivan on Queen’s Chapel Road in Hyattsville. While the officers were pursuing the defendant, he drove to a parking lot, got out of the driver’s seat of the victim’s van, and began to flee on foot. After a brief chase, the officers apprehended him.

In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Machen praised the work of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Detectives Buddy Baylor, Stacey Carey, Eric Schuler, and Manuel Gaffney; Prince George’s County Detectives Lilian Lone, Russell Scott, and Damian Lee, and Prince George’s County officers Thomas Smith, Sean Macaleavey, and Shane Goudreau. He also commended the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim Advocate Jennifer Clark, Paralegal Kalisha Johnson-Clark, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Maia L. Miller, from the Fifth District of the Superior Court Felony Major Crimes Section, who prosecuted the matter.

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